Mizzix of the Izmagnus - Buyback to the future

This deck sprang about basically as an experiment to see "what sort of deck would play memory crystal in EDH?" I've always wanted to try to abuse buyback as much as possible, and mizzix provides a way to cast the same buyback spell many times in the same turn with relatively little support.

The deck aims to set up by casting Mizzix and keep him on the field, while getting the first 3+ experience counters (which can be increased, even if he should be removed, with skyship plunderer or proliferate cards). Enough other cost reduction cards can also accomplish the same goal.

Once that's done, the deck aims to win with one of the abuse cards, or with one of the buyback cards themselves (especially fanning the flames, though capsize and spell burst can essentially lock out the game). One thing that may look a little confusing but is (I think) reasonable is the inclusion of remand and unsubstantiate, which allow you to rescue your buyback spells should they get countered (either by a counterspell or on resolution - especially common if someone has a strip mine or wasteland to stop your capsize lock).

Lands-wise, we're focusing heavily on color fixing so that we can cast as many buyback spells as possible in the same turn, even if we only have red or blue ones available. Very few utility lands are included for that reason.

Rules worth knowing - buyback IS discounted by mizzix, but doesn't count towards CMC. x spells do count the full value of X towards cmc (and are discounted ofc). This means that, if you want to use fanning the flames to get extra counters, without other discounts you'll need to pay 2RR each time.

Overall the deck feels a bit like my shirei deck - when it's on, it's REALLY on, and I'm almost guaranteed to be enemy #1. When it's off, it does next to nothing.

Well, that's not quite fair, the deck can still draw and ramp and play a few control spells, but most of the meat of the deck is centered around going ham with mizzix.

Had an early lead and thought I might win within a couple turns, but then mizzix got stolen through my FoW and another guy played living death a few turns later to put like 30 power on the board or so and then also decided to swing into my face pretty hard (but not hard enough). Got mizzix out as everyone was scrambling to solve the big board state problem (eventually resolved by a nev's disk I helped protect), and somehow I was allowed to live despite having spell burst with 6 counters and a ton of mana, and even (on the last turn) tidespout tyrant. Used my mana to buyback and bounce the remaining blockers, then killed the last 2 people in one turn by pumping them for +27 power with haze of rage with multiple counter backup.

Anyway, it's kind of fun, more fun than shirei but the on/off thing always bothers me. Might be better if I drew memory crystal, although I did have out 2 other cost reducers at one point.

As a Mizzix player myself, let me tell you there are a TON of ways to abuse this general. Buyback is definitely high on the ridiculous interactions list, but the problem is that there aren't all that many good buyback spells out there.Reiterate, Capsize, and Spell Burst are the best.Whispers of the Muse, Fanning the Flames and Shattering Pulse are niche, but have some cute potential.
But the rest just do nothing. Searing Touch? Really?
Then there's the most important part - they all rely on your commander. Without Mizzix, Capsize bounces 1 threat for our entire turn, Whispers taps out to draw 1 card. And if that's bad, just think what Searing Touch does without our commander!

Here's a suggestion: if you're looking for cute interactions with Mizzix, X cost spells are a MUST. The way the rules work out, you will always get an experience counter for playing them, and that allows for ridiculous growth. Even if you don't like stuff like Reality Spasm, you have to admit that casting Stroke of Genius where X is 5 - for just U - is hilarious. The thing is, though, that Stroke of Genius might draw you less cards without Mizzix, but it will still draw you cards, so it will still do its job!Here is an example.

You can also look at my list here, but be warned that it's a combo version of Mizzix.

I also have this on/off problem with some decks sometimes. Do you have deckbuilding strategies to tackle it?

Well, I think one way I attempted to tackle it here is with including cards like catalyst stone and baral, chief of compliance that work as a lower-powered version of my commander. That way even if it's off it's not THAT off. Unfortunately buyback costs are expensive enough that it's pretty difficult to go for a win without the commander, but drawing a card for 4 instead of 6 off whispers was still a pretty decent improvement.

One obvious way is to just build the deck so that it's less reliant on the commander or on specific cards. Commanders like Mizzix and Shirei obviously are dangerous because they can have SUCH a big impact on your play that they're bound to create an on/off situation. Other commanders, such as Glissa, Toshiro, Sygg, etc, I think are less immediately splashy because they generate more incremental advantage so they don't push things to ridiculousness immediately, and are less likely to get removed because of that. The potential upside on commanders like mizzix is so high that they basically can't live without the game ending pretty quickly.

Of course you could build mizzix so that he's NOT busted - i.e. run few instants/sorceries, run spells that cost a bunch of colored mana and little colorless, etc, but where's the fun in that? I think some commanders are just meant to be on/off and that's just how it is. If you try to avoid that too much I think you just end up in goodstuff territory, or running bad cards just to avoid breaking him, neither of which sounds super fun to me.

As a Mizzix player myself, let me tell you there are a TON of ways to abuse this general. Buyback is definitely high on the ridiculous interactions list, but the problem is that there aren't all that many good buyback spells out there.Reiterate, Capsize, and Spell Burst are the best.Whispers of the Muse, Fanning the Flames and Shattering Pulse are niche, but have some cute potential.
But the rest just do nothing. Searing Touch? Really?
Then there's the most important part - they all rely on your commander. Without Mizzix, Capsize bounces 1 threat for our entire turn, Whispers taps out to draw 1 card. And if that's bad, just think what Searing Touch does without our commander!

Here's a suggestion: if you're looking for cute interactions with Mizzix, X cost spells are a MUST. The way the rules work out, you will always get an experience counter for playing them, and that allows for ridiculous growth. Even if you don't like stuff like Reality Spasm, you have to admit that casting Stroke of Genius where X is 5 - for just U - is hilarious. The thing is, though, that Stroke of Genius might draw you less cards without Mizzix, but it will still draw you cards, so it will still do its job!Here is an example.

You can also look at my list here, but be warned that it's a combo version of Mizzix.

I didn't actually draw fanning the flames but it seems nuts for its interaction with mizzix. If you get out memory stone it because RR to get an XP counter and deal increasingly large amounts of damage. Pretty sick wincon imo.

I think shattering pulse is just great. R to destroy any artifact as many times as you want is nutty. No more mana rocks. No more equipment.

Searing touch I drew pretty late so it didn't matter much, but it seems at least ok. it's basically just koth of the hammers ult except it works on nonbasics. Not insane on its own but with any of the abuse guys like talrand or sphinx bone wand or whatever it seems powerful. I considered running trash like whim of volrath just as a way to trigger talrand et al, with no use whatsoever, so 1 damage for 1 mana is a pretty great deal by comparison, even if it does require more setup.

Definitely they're all pretty awful without mizzix but that was sort of the point, it's the buyback deck. I tried to mitigate with memory stone etc. Haze of rage in particular is pretty absurd if you have any kind of token generation. Easy to make every creature have 30+ power.

Early in development I was trying to choose between going X spells to fire increasingly large fireballs, and buyback to trigger as many spell triggers as possible, and I thought buyback seemed like the more novel idea (although a couple X spells are still in there). Stroke of genius is definitely among the best X spells, and should probably be in there anyway, though. I may add it in if I play the deck again, although I feel like I'd have to cut down on the main goal of the deck a bit.

One gem that I run in my Mizzix list is Inexorable Tide. It's a nice fill-in for your commander after you've managed to get one experience counter in a previous iteration of Mizzix, but don't want to run him into a creature-removal spell. Now, I've been advised not to go too crazy on other proliferate triggers, but you could also try Tezzeret's Gambit and Fuel for the Cause. Contagion Engine is probably pushing it a bit too far.

One gem that I run in my Mizzix list is Inexorable Tide. It's a nice fill-in for your commander after you've managed to get one experience counter in a previous iteration of Mizzix, but don't want to run him into a creature-removal spell. Now, I've been advised not to go too crazy on other proliferate triggers, but you could also try Tezzeret's Gambit and Fuel for the Cause. Contagion Engine is probably pushing it a bit too far.

I considered inexorable tide. I'd definitely run it if I were going for more of a hybrid buyback/x spell version. My reason for not running it here is that it's not terribly hard to get to 5 counters, at which point only a few cards care about getting more counters, since this version is pretty all-in on buyback. It seems like a good card for many versions of mizzy though.

I am running tezzeret's, which I think it basically just the perfect card for this deck. Often completely free (mana-wise), gets 2 counters early when you need them, just a great card. Fuel and contagion engine I think are too inefficient to justify, although I could see a proliferate-heavy version of this deck, possibly around infect or big X spells, working out. I just don't think it's this version.

I should mention I switched a couple cards before playing this last week - namely I subbed out some basics for riptide laboratory and tolaria west (which ended up searching for lab). Lab is a great card here. As long as you can afford to pay the tax and keep enough mana up, you can just plan on bouncing her. Not as good as untapping with her, but a lot better than ending up in situations where you can't afford to play more than 1-2 spells after resolving her.